Intensive Livestock Operations, Disembedding, and Community Polarization in Manitoba

Disembedding mechanisms separate activities from their local contexts and reorganize them in the global economy. Manitoba's rapidly growing intensive hog industry has become disembedded socioeconomically, environmentally, and politically. Socioeconomically, intensive livestock operations (ILOs) have come under corporate control and are no longer bound by collective agricultural supply management policies. Environmentally, odor and water quality concerns have increased at the local level and have not been easily amenable to legal and regulatory redress. Politically, disputes over hog barns have disrupted the decision-making process in many rural communities. This has forced a reluctant provincial government to become more involved in the problem.